That's awkward because Pizza Hut's German ads say that they are making "American pizza". I can't tell having not been to the US yet, but one thing is definitely true: German Pizza Hut pizzas are distinct from the average pizza Italian restaurants make in Germany. The difference seems to be the dough, which most restaurants serve really thin and crusty; the main ingredients (tomatoes, mozzarella, vegetables, salami) are mostly fresh when you buy pizza in Germany. My favourite pizza is made by a Greek restaurant around my corner, but that's a different piece of ... you know :-)

I think you miss the essential point here: Germany was fortunately liberated in 1944/45 by the Allies. The Allies enforced the process of Denazification, which envolved several actions, first and foremost the removal of Nazi symbolism of official buildings, renaming of streets and places which the Nazis had given names of their own (mostly Hitler's). The Allies were keen to prevent any uprising of Nazi terror once and for all. So, since 1949, the year when both German states were founded, the Germans (in the West as well as in the East) decided to make it a prime directive of their policy to keep fascism down. So, your freedom of speech in Germany is protected by the state, as long as you do not praise Nazism or deny the existence of the Holocaust. That's it. And the reason is not censorship as such, but a very special, mostly German and Austrian, responsibility to keep a promise that was given after 1945: not to let facism rise a again on German soil.

The fact that children aren't allowed to buy/consume things that adults may, is a quite different discussion. For example, people under 18 aren't allowed to consume pornography as well as hard alcoholic beverages (beer is allowed for everyone under 17, hey they're the Germans :-) ). I think, you would call it a violation of the freedom of speech, when your six-year old is kept from buying a bunch of sex-magazines on his way home from school.
Nazi symbolism is forbidden for any German, regardless of age, sex, profession, belief, etc. It may only depicted for educational reasons (museums or historic textbooks, as far as I know). The spreading of "Mein Kampf", Hitler's first book, is for example not forbidden by the state, but of the current copyright holder.

By the way: Have you ever been Germany or Europe, at least?

There, fixed that for you.

Alright. Let's have a look at the German constitution (Grundgesetz, basic law, they call it). I retrieved an official English translation for it via Wikipedia, quote:

1. (1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
2. (2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.
3. (3) The following basic rights shall bind the legislature, the executive and the judiciary as directly applicable law.

As every governmental decision has to obey to this fundamental rule, why should Germany not be "a free country"? What you say about Nazis is in fact not true. It's quite the opposite: If you spread Nazi ideology you may soon face some time in jail, but not if you protest against neo-Nazism. The censorship of videogames is mainly related to a certain law which forbids to show Nazi-symbols, like the swastika. So, if you want to sell a game there, leave them out, and it can be sold. How could law differentiate between videogames and propaganda posters and allow video games to show those symbols while keeping neo-Nazi propaganda from doing so?

I'd say you depict Germany in a really distorted way. Deducting non-freedom from special Nazi-related laws is a little far fetched, imho.

Fortunately, "The country that tried to take over the world" has ceased to exist in May 1945. So what are you talking about?

ZLORFIK!

I've chosen the wrong option :-(

As far as I remember, Nintendo has been trying to build up the corporate image of a "family friendly" entertainment company. The elderly people on slashdot might remember the ridiculous censorship that Nintendo forced on "Maniac Mansion" before they backed its release for the NES (link: http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/maniac.html). Nintendo financially relies on embracing new target audiences for their products to evade direct competition with Sony and Microsoft. Just recall the introduction of the Gameboy, which was technically inferior to its main competitor, the Atari Lynx or think of the WII, which shares most of its components with the not-quite-new Gamecube. Directly targeting the same audiences like Sony or Microsoft got Nintendo in trouble really soon. So, as long as Nintendo does not make an U-turn in its sales strategy it is therefore very likely that "mature" content will be nothing more than a niche that they accept but don't actively promote.

Frankly, I object to "traditions" that allow anyone to wreck my front door. Also, "vandalism" is not my tradition.

I also refuse to hurt children, even if they "smash my pumpkins". There are better ways to deal with that.

So, if I'm caught by costumed kids at home, I'll share some of my sweets (no, I am not a pinhead ;-) ). But if I am out and notice a wasted front-door on my return, it would be better for the delinquents when I did not know their parents ;-)

Trouble is, the "continental European version" of Halloween, as I exeperienced it so far, has been stripped of everything but ringing at everybody's home to gather sweets while wearing costumes. I am nearly 100% sure, that not any kid will know that rule around here. Still, what they know is that on Halloween, people who do not open their door, get their knobs or doorbells coated with toothpaste.

Right. That's exactly my point. Most kids around here don't care for that one. Globalization would be so fine, if imported customs would not be that distorted :-)

I assume you are a US resident. Well, I live in The Old World and would like to note that for the last several years, this phenomenon called "Halloween", which was previuosly hardly known among the majority of us, has been mushrooming sharply. As noone really rejected it, the retail industry kept targetting kindergarden kids and pupils. So, when it comes to globalization, I'd say, it really hit us. Kids in central Europe celebrate a cult which they hardly know except from dressing like it was carnival and scaring people. Adults making their "trick or treat" experience usually react in a puzzled way and only few stockpile sweets in advance. Most of the adolescents and adults have a slightly distanced view of Halloween as they feel, it has been imposed on them by the industry. I think, as long as it lacks tradition here, it will be always be a kind of artificial thing. Nevertheless, as carnival is very popular here, I predict this thing to say. *sigh*

So, I better be going. My grocer just called me up to let me know my truckload of gummi bears just arrived...

ADSL, 16MBit/s downstream, 1MBit/s upstream. Should be sufficient for any streaming purposes :-)

OK, to be more precise, I am not a professor, but a post-graduate giving lectures. The professor holding the chair I am working for is responsible for this strange situation. Nevertheless, he is quite representative for a decent number of other professors when it comes to working from home. D'oh.

To make sure that you can use your computer for online banking without any data being read/written from/onto your harddrive, you might check out "Bankix" from Germany-based "Heise Online" (of H-online.com fame). They modified an Ubuntu-Live CD to keep the system from accessing the hard-disk using a modified kernel. Heres the original description (in German, of course). Follow this link, if you prefer a robot-translated English version.

You suppose that we do our lectures using video streams. Actually, the largest group of our students is working full-time (either because they can't afford a full-time university or because they want to get a further diploma to qualify for a different position in their firm) and therefore is quite happy with our printed materials. Only very few professors actually use video streaming (and this only on few occasions), so that our campus only requires one TV studio.

So, a computer, a phone, a decent internet connection (ADSL/cable) and some space on your desk would be all to manage your tasks from home. Needless to say that nearly all of us have a university-sponsored laptop and handheld computer. But actually, most of us ask ourselves why as a remote working place is not favored :-)

... in fact, I can't.

I am employed at the largest university of my home country, which is exclusively dedicated to long-distance teaching -- very remote, if you like. Funny thing is, that a lot of students live hundreds, or even thousands of miles away, and literally never populate our campus. Guess what? My colleagues and me are expected to work from our campus offices every single day, although most students approach us via email or our newsgroups. So, remote students don't result in a virtual office and working from home.

So, I have to drive down here every day, although it could be so simple to save all that hassle -- and the fuel, of course.

Yes, I know, I am doing the smart ass thing right now, but the Federal Republic of Germany we know right now has technically existed since 1949. There have several occasions where the (you say West) German state has significantly changed. For example in 1957, a small independent country joined the German Federation. Furthermore, my home country integrated numerous smaller areas from its western neighbours (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) as well as some North Sea islands between 1949 and the 1970s. So if you say, that we have a different state every time some minor areal changes took place, then counting them all will become a rather difficult task :-) My dad would have lived in approximately seven different countries whithout moving out of his home - mind-blowing, if you ask me, but not very helpful on this poll :-)